WEAVING THE CONNECTIONS
The Newsletter of the Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine
Volume 16 Spring-2011 Number 4
Encountering the Feminine Divine
Eleanor Rae
On my recent journey to Asia one of the highlights was a visit to Cambodia and Angkor Wat, the 12th century Hindu temple complex that is the largest religious building in the world. Lost to the rain forest through time, it was rediscovered in the 19th century. While much reconstruction remains to be done, I was stunned by the art and architecture of the temple, as well as by the engineering that made it possible. But if I had hoped to find evidence of the worship of the feminine divine there, I was disappointed—this was the home primarily of the male gods Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva, respectively the preserver, creator, and destroyer of the universe. My search for the feminine divine was to be satisfied elsewhere in ways that I had not anticipated.
The first encounter was in China in the former Portuguese colony of Macau. I visited the still active temple of A-Ma, the goddess of seafarers. It is said that when the Portuguese first arrived here in the early 1550’s, the local residents informed them that they had reached A-Ma-Gao, the place of A-Ma. The Portuguese adopted this name, which eventually became today’s Macau.
A second encounter with the goddess was in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. There I visited the shrine of Uroja. Her black stone image is still actively honored by the local people who bring her offerings and pray to her.
And, finally, in ultra-sophisticated Singapore I found the temple of Sri Mariamman, thought to be the oldest Hindu place of worship in this city. Here, as in the two previously mentioned goddess encounters, my overwhelming experience was of the fervor of the devotees in these places of worship.
As I reflected back on my Asia experience, I could not help but be reminded of a visit I had made many years ago to the Roman Catholic cathedral in Cologne, Germany. There the church was deserted except for the side altar dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, where many devotees prayed. This reverence spoke strongly to me of our human need for the feminine divine. But where do we find this need addressed in Christianity? I have written and spoken frequently on the Holy Spirit as the Feminine Divine. Recently I was further enlightened on this issue by my friend Zeni Fox who described, in a letter to me, a school of Franciscan theologians in the Middle Ages who believed that it was the Spirit who made new life come forth in the springtime. My prayer is that we may all participate with the Spirit in Her work of re-Creation in this Spring season when it is so sorely needed.
The Failure to Act
Susanne Schaup
Why do we fail to act although we know there is no time to lose? It is a phenomenon worth contemplating. Why does Homo sapiens, the most intelligent species on the planet, steer towards self-destruction with open eyes? Is it a case of blindness, of “eyes wide shut,” to quote the title of a marvelous film by Stanley Kubrick, or is it a case of sheer madness? Blind we are not, because we can see what is happening to the Earth. We are witnesses of our collective suicide, but our eyes are deluded, in fact “wide shut.” It is indeed a kind of madness, but when we inquire why toxic emissions are not stopped or at least reduced to a tolerable level, we get very rational answers. It is madness with a method, madness with clear motives behind it. Call it greed, irresponsibility, economic forces, the necessity of industrial growth. Call it what you will, it hardly matters.
The shocking fact is, as Eleanor pointed out in the last issue of Weaving, that we do not feel what we see. We behave as if we were paralyzed. We have no empathy with our exhausted, suffering Earth, because so many of us are not affected by it. The problem seems so far away. We are not the ones who lack clean water, fuel for cooking or keeping warm. We are not the ones who are hungry. Yes, we see pictures of melting glaciers, advancing deserts, dwindling rain forests, dying polar bears and other endangered species, and dying human beings on television and in the other media, but we are not moved enough for a general outcry that would shock the policymakers into action.
It is another matter to see a human being bleeding, tortured, beaten to death next to you in the real world. The impulse to help, to stop the violence is an ancient reflex that dates back to our animal ancestors. This is the reason why Uncle Tom’s Cabin roused thousands to action and was translated into nearly every language of the world. In her or his mind’s eye, the reader was able to picture the suffering of this humble slave, representing all slaves. Uncle Tom was a black slave and he was a fellow human being. Essentially, he was one of us, and the framework of Christian values in which the story is set confirms this view.
But who or what is the Earth, “Gaia”, as Greek mythology calls her? She is a living entity comprising all life, yet in the saturated North we do not see her bleed; we do not hear her cries of pain. Empathy is a form of love. How can you love an abstraction or a mythological concept?
This brings to mind the valiant efforts of Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self (2005) among other books, who toured the world to rouse a feeling of love for Gaia. She was a compelling speaker when I heard her in Munich years ago, and it was clear that she believed in every word she said. The audience was moved and cheered her—and then everybody went about their business. There was no spontaneous action taken or presentation made to decision-making bodies, as far as I know.
This is the crux of the matter, I think. Nothing substantial is done to stop the climate change because by and large humanity still does not feel empathy with this body— Earth—which sustains our life. For large numbers of people the idea is still too new. It shakes the foundation of a belief we inherited from time immemorial, sanctioned by biblical authority: that we are the masters of the Earth and may subject and exploit it for our purposes. This belief has been challenged for at least half a century, but it takes more time for new concepts to sink into mainstream consciousness.
Stewardship rather than ownership, the willingness to share, responsibility, empathy, compassion, and if there is any trespass on these virtues—a sense of guilt. These are categories which are not in vogue in our day. In philosophical terms, they have been discredited since the Age of Enlightenment, if not since the Renaissance. The assertion of individual freedom was indispensable for human emancipation. It is a hallowed tradition that gave rise to the French and the American Revolutions. Carried to the extreme, it fosters hubris, the kind of reckless arrogance and self-centeredness which are the root causes of the destruction of our natural environment.
But are we responsible? Do we really have a free will? There are some disquieting answers suggested by the new neurosciences. The decisions we take and act upon, they claim, have nothing to do with free will. They are physiological processes triggered by deep instincts over which we have no control.
Are we then condemned to inertia, and to letting the planet take care of itself? The answer is: definitely not! Even if our will is not as free as we would like to think, we are not the puppets of our physiology. We can indeed change our environment, and we can find encouraging examples everywhere. Another branch of science successfully taps the limitless energy sources of Nature to replace fossil energy. A vast solar power plant has been constructed in the Californian Mojave desert, and many more are in the planning stage. A gigantic project of a similar kind, “Desertec”, is being developed for the Sahara. The means to transfer energy generated in the desert to all parts of the world where it is needed is not fully developed yet, but large international companies are beginning to change their outlook and invest in renewable energy.
Then what can we do? We can continue whatever we are doing on a small scale—saving energy, recycling our waste, cleaning up our immediate environment, buying fair trade goods…. At the same time, we can participate in the mind work it takes to turn healing, fostering thoughts into universal habits and mainstream action. With these efforts, perhaps humankind will learn to feel empathy with and love the Earth, and be moved to action at last.
Associates of C:WED:
Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., founder
Anne Andersson, editor
Giles E. Rae, publisher
Representatives at the United Nations:
New York: Alayne O’Reilly, Ph.D.
Kathleen Quain
Vienna: Susanne Schaup, Ph.D.
Mission Statement
The Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine is dedicated to exploring the parallels that exist between the imaging and treatment of women and of the Earth, and how our images of the Divine are related to these parallels.
We began by exploring these relationships within the context of our own tradition— the Christian. While we continue our exploration in this tradition, we have also engaged people of other traditions such as the Buddhist, Goddess, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish and Muslim. Our work is made available through talks, workshops, writings and retreats. The immediate purpose of the Center is educational, while the ultimate goal is the healing of the Creation.
The founder of C:WED is Eleanor Rae, Ph.D., author of Women, the Earth, the Divine, President Emerita of the Network Alliance of Congregations Caring for Earth and founder of the Earth Values Caucus at the United Nations and Founder/President of the Hutchinson River Restoration Project..
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Launch of UN Women
Honoring the Past – Envisioning the Future
for Women and Girls
Anne Andersson
A significant world event occurred at the UN on February 24, 2011 within the context of the 55th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)—the launch of a new unit: The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, more concisely known as UN Women. The entity merged four UN units that had previously been focused on gender issues and the empowerment of women. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon chose Dr. Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and former Chilean president, to be its first executive director. UN Women calls Michelle Bachelet a visionary leader and advocate for social justice and women’s rights.
Eleanor Rae afforded me the opportunity to be present at the launch ceremony held in the UN General Assembly Hall. There I was able to viscerally feel the excitement among the attendees as they witnessed a new turn in the effort to bring to fruition Millennium Development Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women, and to address the concerns of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in 1995.
Michelle Bachelet stated that there is no limit to what women can do. She offered that the vision on which UN Women is grounded is one “of a world where women and men have equal rights and opportunities, and the principles of gender equality and women’s empowerment are firmly integrated in the development, human rights, and peace and security agendas.” She outlined five goals of UN Women that are designed to meet this objective:
1. Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation, working with partners to close the gaps in women’s leadership and participation in different sectors and to demonstrate the benefits of such leadership for society as a whole.
2. Ending violence against women by enabling states to set up the mechanisms needed to formulate and enforce laws, policies and services that protect women and girls, promote the involvement of men and boys, and prevent violence.
3. Strengthening implementation of the women, peace and security agenda, through women’s full participation in conflict resolution and peace processes, gender-responsive early-warning, protection from sexual violence and redress for its survivors in accordance with UN resolutions.
4. Enhancing women’s economic empowerment, including in the context of global economic and environment crises. UN Women will work with governments and multilateral partners to ensure the full realization of women's economic security and rights, including access to productive assets and full social protection.
5. Making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting: working with partners, UN Women will support national capacities in evidence-based planning, budgeting and statistics.
Two reigning concepts threaded throughout the evening: “Women’s rights are human rights,” and “I am UN Women—We are UN Women,” the latter concept reiterated by women and men, boys and girls.
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated emphatically:“I will support women with every ounce of my energy and my time. I will try to raise money too!”
Michelle Bachelet firmly believes: “Women’s strength, women’s industry, women’s wisdom are humankind’s greatest untapped resource. The challenge is to show how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.”
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For more information: www.unwomen.org; www.facebook.com/unwomen; www.twitter.com/un_women; www.youtube.com/unwomen
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5/3/2011
